DATE: Friday, July 18, 1997                 TAG: 9707180662

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MICHAEL CLARK, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  144 lines

WOOLWORTH CLOSING THE LAST OF ITS 5-&-10S 117-YEAR-OLD RETAIL CHAIN HAS JUST 2 STORES LEFT IN HAMPTON ROADS.

At first glance, Thursday looked like any other shopping day at the Woolworth store in Virginia Beach's Pembroke Mall - except it was the beginning of the end for the venerable five-and-dime.

After 117 years, New York-based Woolworth announced Thursday it is getting out of the general merchandise retail business. Some 9,200 employees will be layed off and 400 stores under the F.W. Woolworth name will close.

The company operated the Pembroke Mall store and another in Newport News. Plans are to close all of the stores in the next few months.

Clutching strips of elastic and other sewing supplies to her chest, Julie Haskell of Virginia Beach said she hadn't sewed in 20 years and has a cabinet full of supplies.

``I had to come buy something,'' she said. ``I just wanted to look around to see it the way it was.''

F.W. Woolworth stores accounted for $1 billion of Woolworth Corp.'s annual sales of more than $8 billion, but are not profitable. Last year, the stores suffered a $37 million loss in competition with discount stores.

One hundred stores will be converted to athletic or specialty formats such as the chain's Foot Locker or new larger Champs Sports. Company officials would not say if either of the local stores is on the conversion list.

Even if the local stores are converted, an era has passed.

To many people, Woolworth stores were as much landmarks as they were places to spend money. Shoppers who heard the news took it as hard as the death of a loved one.

``I bought my first china ever at a Woolworth,'' Julie Haskell said. ``It's kind of sad, like part of the family is gone.''

Haskell heard the announcement on the radio and made a special trip to Pembroke Mall.

She will return for the inevitable clearance sales when they're held, she said. ``But it will be chaos.''

Clint and Alice Howell had not heard the news before they arrived at the mall.

``I think it's terrible,'' Alice Howell said.

``Oh my goodness,'' her husband said.

The news hurt a little more for the couple since they live within a mile of the mall, where the store opened in 1966.

``This is someplace we love to go,'' Alice Howell said. ``Even when it snowed and you couldn't drive, we would walk up here. When the old names keep going like this, it's scary.''

The store has had a place in Alice Howell's life since the late 1930s and early '40s.

``Whem my mother went downtown to pay bills, she would ask me `What do you want me to bring you back?' '' she said. ``I told her I wanted the prettiest picture and she would go to the Woolworth in downtown Norfolk and bring me a religious picture.''

The shock stayed with the couple as they walked down the aisle.

``It's a shame,'' he said.

``More bad news,'' she said.

Neither the Pembroke store manager nor any assistant managers were available for comment Thursday.

One Woolworth employee who did not want to give her name said many of her co-workers had not heard the news yet. No formal announcement had been made in the store. She knew because the manager had mentioned it in a conversation Wednesday.

``People were still filling out applications,'' she said.

A programmed recording on the store's audio system also belied the situation.

``Did you know that Woolworth has greeting cards for every occasion?'' MEMO: MERCHANDISING IDEA A CLERK'S BRAINCHILD

Founder Frank W. Woolworth's first job was clerking for Moore &

Smith, a general store in Watertown, N.Y., where he suggested putting

slow-moving merchandise in a special area and selling it for - you

guessed it - a nickel or a dime. The venture was so successful, other

merchandise was handled the same way.

Woolworth opened six stores that operated in that manner. In 1912

they were united to form the F.W. Woolworth Co.

The first store, in Utica, N.Y., opened in 1879. The Great Five Cent

Store closed after a few months. His first successful 5-and-10 was his

second store, which opened the same year in Lancaster, Pa.

After an 1890 buying trip to Europe, Woolworth made goods from that

continent available for a nickel or a dime.

In 1895, Woolworth pioneered giving employees paid vacations.

Woolworth's dime price ceiling was lifted to 20 cents in 1932. All

arbitrary price limits were removed in 1935.

Woolworth, who was born in 1852, died in 1919. At the time, his

company had 1,000 stores with annual sales of more than $100 million.

The company has had stores in Canada, Europe, Australia and Mexico

and once had one in Cuba.

Other stores owned by the corporation included Robinson's, Woolworth

Express, Roses, Mini Shops and The Bargain Shop, Woolco and The Rx

Place, a discount drug store.

In England, the 5-and-10 was known as the ``three and sixes.''

The Woolworth brothers built the Woolworth Building in New York City

in 1913. It was the tallest in the world at that time. Company

headquarters are still located there.

In February 1960, a hot dog and soft drink lunch at Woolworth's cost

39 cents. At the time, black people were not allowed at the lunch

counters.

On Feb. 1, 1960, four freshmen from North Carolina Agricultural and

Technical State University were denied service at the segregated

Woolworth lunch counter in Greensboro. They refused to leave, touching

off protests in nine states.

On Feb. 16, 1960, inspired by the Woolworth's sit-in, more than a

dozen students from Portsmouth's I.C. Norcom High School staged a sit-in

at Roses in the MidCity Shopping Center when they were denied lunch.

Whites were offered a free meal for occupying seats. The store closed in

September 1988.

On July 25, 1960, Woolworth agreed to allow black customers at the

lunch counters.

On Oct. 13, 1993, Woolworth's New York headquarters announced that it

was laying off 13,000 employees and closing 1,000 stores in the United

States and Canada, including one in Portsmouth, two in Norfolk and

another in Hampton. In May, the corporation announced that Suffolk's

only Woolworth's would close.

In January 1997, Woolworth's on Granby and Freemason streets in

Norfolk became the Technology Building for the Norfolk campus of

Tidewater Community College.

- Compiled from staff reports. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

In the early years

This photo from the early 1900s shows properly attired employees

outside a Woolworth's whose location is unknown today. Women were

required to wear ankle-length dresses and males, both men and boys,

wore ties on the job.

Color photo

BILL TIERNAN, The Virginian-Pilot

Loyal until the very end

Julie Haskell of Virginia Beach, a Woolworth fan for years, came for

sewing goods after hearing the news.

Photo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Civil rights landmark

Woolworth's became a flashpoint for the civil rights movement after

four African-American students staged a sit-in at a Woolworth's

lunch counter in 1960 in Greensboro, N.C.

Graphic

LOCALLY

Both area Woolworth stores, in Pembroke Mall in Virginia Beach

and in Newport News, will close in the next few months.

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